I ran my first marathon today. I finished 16 minutes slower than my goal thanks to side stitches and a blister on the toe one over from the big on my right foot. Weather was perfect for a run: ~62F with some occasional rain showers. I'm sore as hell but, I can say "I'm a marathoner".

Update - Some rankings:

251/377 in my age group1711/2643 males2493/4282 finishers.

Also, according to my log, I tallied 441 miles running during training, excluding the marathon.

I did it. I ran twenty miles today in ~3:13; 9:40 pace. Pinnacle of training has been reached and the tapering begins. I feel pretty good, albeit a little sore. It rained, and rained hard at times, for the first fourteen miles. After you've run fourteen miles in heavy rain, it doesn't matter anymore if it doesn't rain for the next six.

I'm glad the big 2-0 is behind me. The marathon will be hard but I'm going to be ready.

Fourteen weeks of marathon training are in the log and the dreaded week fifteen begins tomorrow. Runs of 5, 10, 5 make up the mid-week runs and then Saturday is the longest run of training - 20. When I first considered whether or not to tackle a marathon, week fifteen was the week that scared me. Now, I look at it and it doesn't look so frightening anymore; dreaded, perhaps, but I am confident I can bag that 20 six days from now. After all, I've already done an 18 and, while that was hard, I did it. It's going to take me about 200 minutes to run 20, but I am sure I can do it.

After this week, tapering begins. Mileage is reduced and runs are more for maintenance. It's funny to look down at a ten or twelve mile run instead up at it.

I am now about to finish the 10th week of marathon training. Today I ran my longest distance yet - 15 miles. I was a little nervous and intimidated about today's run going back a day or two but today I woke at 5:45 and did my stretches, had 1.5 cups of coffee and half a banana, and went out and ran the 15. I felt a great deal of accomplishment after I finished and the 20 miler that's scheduled for Easter weekend and that I've been fretting about seems possible now.

My goal for the run today was 2:22:30 (9:30 pace) and I finished in 2:25:23 which isn't too bad. It's not going to win me any awards but running 15 miles at a 9:41 is what it is and it isn't sitting on a couch saying "I need to get in shape."

As I've said before, there's a big difference between "I will" and "I should."

I'll never forget the day Reagan took office. The school gathered us into the cafeteria to watch the inauguration on the lone TV the school had to witness Reagan taking the oath and giving his address while the hostages were simultaneously being released in Iran. What a great day!

The conclusion of his parting words, so eloquently spoken:

We've done our part. And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for eight years did the work that brought America back. My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.

And so, goodbye, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

A few weeks ago, I registered for a marathon. I'll be running Pittsburgh 100 days from today which means 99 more days of training are ahead. This week will mark the conclusion of four weeks of training.

So far, the training hasn't been difficult as the distances involved aren't a challenge for me. Week five has the first double-digit long run and that will be the norm for the rest of the training. The plan I'm following comprises of four runs a week, one of which is the long run over the weekend. This long run will gradually increase to 20 miles on Easter weekend and then taper down until the big day in May. During the week, the runs will be two short (three, increasing to five) bookending a medium (increasing to ten); two rest days and a cross-training day round out the week.

Two glitches have come about: the weather and my knee. The weather hasn't forced me to miss any runs yet as the townships have done a sufficient job plowing their sections of the bikepath. However, I aggravated my knee last week and runner's knee has flared up again. It's not enough to stop me from running but I do need to stretch often and am going to PT again to get it worked out. This is my second bout with it.

Will I be ready? The weather will get better, eventually, so it's just the knee that I need to work out. The distances don't intimidate me as long as my body is tuned properly.